1B. Option to add additional "border" graphics and to customise on which screens they are to be displayed. For example, I would like to be able to have a 30x30 pixel image display on a particular part of the screen only when the party is in normal game view (ie not on combat, view, camp, etc screens).

1C. Ability to change the border graphics (including the additional border graphics in request 1B) through events during the game.

1D. Option to set the order in which the layers of border graphics are drawn - ie which layer is "on top".

1E. The ability to choose separate images for the viewport frame and the character portrait frame (and to set the x,y co-ordinates for each, rather than setting x,y offset, which is quite difficult. This request might actually become unnecessary if 1B were implemented.

2. COMPASS 2A. Zone option to exclude display of compass - similar to the way area view is sometimes not available.

2B. Option to use a graphic compass (as per FRUA) - with separate images for facing north, south, east, west, and when no compass is shown (as per request 2A), and customisable images size and position for each.

3. RACE AND CLASS CUSTOMISATIONFull customisability of races and classes - in particular:3A. ability to add additional new races with their own level limits, class restrictions, ability score ranges and modifiers, etc; 3B. ability to modify existing classes by changing spell progression tables;3C. ability to add additional new classes with their own spell classes, spell progression tables, XP level advancement tables, minimum and maximum ability scores, ability score modifiers, prime requisites;3D ability to assign spells to a new spell classes (ie different classes than magicuser, cleric and druid spells);3E. ability to fully change a character's class (not just, for example, the name of the class) through events in the game.(Incidentally, I think if we had fully customisable races and classes this would allow designers to impose overall level limits etc by capping limits for all races or classes - kills two feature requests with one stone

4. COMBAT MAGIC (may already be implemented)Do monsters / unfriendly / uncontrolled NPCs currently cast spells in combat? If not, this is a major request.

5. TEXT PLACEMENT CUSTOMISABILITYAllow the designer, through config.txt, to customise where particular kinds of text appear on the screen. For example, the X,Y starting position for text on the character VIEW screen, the character's names, HP and AC on the 3D view screen, the information on the right-hand side of the combat screen.

6. ALL-CAPS AND SMALL-CAPS FONT OPTIONSAllow the chosen fonts to be "all caps" and "small caps".

7. HIGHLIGHTING CUSTOMISABILITYAllow the designer to define both the highlight colour AND the text color of highlighted text itself. (This would allow emulation of FRUA where highlighted text was a light teal colour).

8. CAPACITY TO ADD OPTIONS TO OTHER MENUS Allow the designer to add an extra menu button to a chosen menu (especially the normal 3D view menu and the CAMP menu), with the effect of the button linkable to an event, and the circumstances it is to be available/visible customisable by the designer. (As discussed in post #3 and others in this thread: http://ua.reonis.com/index.php?topic=1917.msg25471#msg25471)

9. DEFAULT TO LAST-SELECTED ITEM/QUESTWhen you have an event trigger such as "Quest in Progress" or "Party has special item", and you go to select a quest or item, etc, the list always comes up with the first quest or item highlighted, even if one has already previously been selected. It would be helpful if, when a quest or item has already been selected from the list, the currently selected item or quest is highlighted by default. Only the first few characters of the item/quest name are actually shown on the button, so if there are several items or quests with the same first few characters, then there is no way for a designer to actually check which item or quest is the trigger (and that they have selected the item/quest they want), without re-selecting it. (Previously raised here: http://ua.reonis.com/index.php?topic=1946.msg25889#msg25889)

10. WALL SELECTION SCREEN Alternative wall formats should not be stretched when displayed in the wall selection screen.

11. Text String editor - preferably accessible from a menu option within the editor. The idea would be to enable as many fixed text strings as possible to be edited - like the old STRED and TEXTEDIT hack programs for FRUA.

12. TIME PER STEP CUSTOMISABILITYThe 'delta per step' number currently must be an integer. It would be nice to have the flexibility to set it as a fractional number. The game clock displayed to the player should still round (or round down) to the nearest whole minute.

13. MULTIPLE FILE SELECTION IN EDITOR13A. There are a couple of circumstances where it would be nice to be able to select multiple files. In these cases, unfortunately, it is still only possible to select one file. The ones I have in mind at the moment are where the designer clicks "Add" in (1) Small Pic Pool and (2) Icon Pool. There possibly be others.13B. A multiple file select to import multiple graphics files into multiple wall-slots would be handy too.

14. SPELL MEMORISED EVENT TRIGGER14A. Ability to check whether the party has a particular spell memorised and to trigger any event based on the result. (This might already be possible via logic block but I would like "spell memorised" and "spell not memorised" as event triggers/14B. Ability to remove a memorised spell through an event

15. SPELL ACTIVE EVENT TRIGGERAbility to check, as an event trigger, if "Party is effected by "X" spell - and chance to choose the relevant spell. Not 100% sure how this would be done. Similar to "detecting traps" trigger but flexible for application with other spells.

16. DIVIDE SPELL LISTS UP BY LEVEL, AS PER FRUA:It would be desirable for spells to be divided up by level (as they were in FRUA), so the spells display when memorizing / casting would look like this:

1st Level Magic-User Spells Sleep Magic Missile etc

2nd Level Magic-User Spells Stinking Cloud Ray of Enfeeblement etc

17. ALTER PARTY ORDER IN TRAINING HALL SCREENOn the screen displayed once party members have intially been added to the party (and also at the training hall, which has a similar menu), it would be helpful if you could move party members up and down the order (as can be done under CAMP>ALTER>ORDER).

18. PLAYER-NAMED SAVED GAMESIt would be great if, on saving a game, the designer could name their saved game (as per EOB2 and EOB3, but not gold box games), rather than just choosing slot A, B, C etc. The saved games would then need to be displayed in a vertical menu rather than a horizontal one.

19. WARNING TO "LOSE" SPELLS IF CAST IN WRONG SETTINGThis was a request from earlier -- not sure if it is now fixed (or for some other reason rendered irrelevant) in the latest versions of DC. Selection of a non-combat spell while in combat simply results in the spell being cast. In FRUA, a prompt something like "<spell> cannot be cast here. Lose spell YES NO" would be displayed. It would be handy if there was a similar question in DC: eg, "Find Traps is a non-combat spell. Cast anyway? YES NO". Similarly, selection of a combat only spell in camp should say, "<spell> cannot be cast here. Lose it?" or similar. There is just no point in being able to cast Hold Person in camp (but the player should still have the option of "unmemorizing" it, either by electing to "lose it" or by "unselecting" it in the CAST menu.

20. GREATER CUSTOMISABILITY OF MAXIMUM / MINIMUM NUMBER OF PARTY MEMBERSWe currently have two numbers, settable in the Global Setting screen. I believe we really need three: (1) "Minimum PCs to begin game"; (2) "Maximum PCs to begin game"; and (3) Absolute maximum throughout game" - ie, party maximum including NPCs. So, for example, I want to be able to force the player to start with 1 PC and limit them to a maximum 3 NPCs at any given time. Or I want to be able to make the party start with between 4 and 6 PCs, but allow up to 10 as a max party size.

21. NPC CONTROL OPTIONSIt would be nice to have an option, for each NPC, to decide whether they are (1) always Player controlled in combat; (2) never player controlled in combat; or (3) controlled according to whether the party satisfies the relevant conditions for Paladin control. There might possibly be other options.

22. SPECIFIED BASECLASS IN PARTY EVENT TRIGGERThere should be event triggers for both "Specified baseclass in party" AND "Specified class in party". This was previously discussed; I'm not sure what is the current approach of DC to this issue.

23. CUSTOMISABILITY OF STARTING SPELLSFor classes like mages which learn their spells through the game (rather than having all spells of a particular level automatically available, as per clerics), the designer should be able to choose how many spells of each level the character can choose at the start of the game.

24. IMPORT/EXPORT PARTY FOR USE IN ANOTHER GAMEI previously posted this but it didn't create flurry of responses: Could we have a menu item, probably in the training hall menu I think, where the player can select "EXPORT CURRENT PARTY FOR USE IN ANOTHER GAME". This would then save the game with the current party (perhaps in a particular, specially identified file, or perhaps the player can choose the save letter as per a normal save). The player could then take that file and place it in any other game folder and load the party. The "exporting" process would need to add something to the save file so that, when that game is loaded in another design, the party is started at the beginning of the game. I imagine quests and special items should also be stripped off in either the saving or loading process. It seems a little complicated. Perhaps we should have some general discussion about what would be the best way to achieve the exporting of parties and characters between DC games.

25. AVI VIDEOS AS TITLE SCREENSThis previously worked, but I think it stopped working. Can it be brought back? Not that important to me.

26. FONT INSTALLATIONI don't know if this is possible. But since the designer chooses the font, it might not be available on the player's computer. Of course you can include it, but the player then has to install the font themselves. It would be great if DC could determine whether the font is installed on the player's system and, if not, install it. If thought desirable, it could then also uninstall the font when the game is exited (so that the player's system is not affected).

27 (Related to Option to deactivate the "Drop Character" function in the camp menu. Alternatively, there could be check boxes for NPCs like "can be dropped"

28 Animatable walls

29 More events with sound function.

30 Small, animatable pictures with transparent background

Logged

Find four contributions to the Pre-Generated Character Mini-Module Design Contest on my homepage.New: THE AMBASSADOR'S LETTER, my contribution to the 7-day-challenge.DINONYKOS DUNGEON CRAFT DESIGN HOMEPAGE

MULTIPLE FONTS OR SIZES:I would love to be able to have more than one font available for different parts of the screen. Whenever I select a large font for my text (which looks really nice), it messes up the menus at the bottom of the screen or makes the character names look wonky. I think we should be able to select multiple fonts or at least different sizes for each part of the game.

CLICKING EVENTS:When you click on an event in the editor, I would love for the game to actually open that event chain (like it does in UA). Last time I checked, it just opens up the event listing, but you don't know which one you clicked on when you have a whole bunch of them, so you have to move your cursor over and click Edit.

CLICKING EMPTY AREAS:When clicking an empty area on the map, I want the cursor to move to where I click, like it does in UA. This doesn't seem to happen.

KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS:Maybe this only bothers me, but UA has keyboard shortcuts that I tend to use a lot. When I want to edit an event, for example, I press "E." But, when I do that in DC, it does nothing, and I have to go all the way over and press the EDIT button. This can be done pretty easily, I'm sure.

WALL POOL:It would be nice if you could access walls from a large wall pool that you can see from any level, rather than having a ton of walls available on a per area basis. If I need to reuse a bunch of walls from one area in another one, I have to import them all again. It's a real pain. Having a central wall pool with a lot of slots would be handy. My suggestion is this: Adding a button called "Default" that allows you to choose one level as your default, and those walls will be automatically added to any new area you open. You can then customize within each level individually without affecting the default selection.

POP UP MENUS:Rather than being limited to the text box like UA when using question events, it would be nice to have a pop-up box that opens allowing a player to click on the selection of their choice. The box could be dynamic enough to hold more choices than the text box, which is severely limited.

PICTURE WIPES:Some animation on picture changes could be cool as well (though not necessary, I suppose). Instead of pictures just changing, perhaps you could fade from one picture to another one or use a wipe effect whenever a box is checked. Obviously, you wouldn't want it for everything, but if you're showing a passage of time or something, it could be nice.

PICTURES:Can DC show a full screen picture at any time? Because that would be nice too. If you wanted to show the destruction of a town or some major event, being able to show a picture the size of a title screen would be nice. Then again, for all I know, this is already in there.

Ability to add/subtract/get currency slot numbers via script I was playing around in .914 with idea of setting up a currency slot for "food" and then running regular checks to see if you have some or not. In .914, designer cannot subtract from currency slot totals nor check to see if you have nothing in slot. Going with the "food" in a currency slot example, then you can make use of create food or water spells and such. The ability to script currency would also work for an event where some NPC pickpockets some players character. I seem to remember something like that happened to me in a goldbox game.

Option to make custom combat map So a combat event would have ability not to auto-make a combat map from the dungeon map, but instead allow a custom made map made by the designer. * This would include the designer making different art for combat map squares. I think of the scene from Lord of the rings when the companions are fighting the goblins and the cave troll in the tomb of balin, where they are standing on the ledge that runs the outside of the room. Moving up onto the ledge may cost movement points, and the pillars make good defense. Which leads me to the next point:*Different passage options for combat map squares (such as impassable, movement reduced, able to shoot arrows/throw thru but not move thru like an open window, and perhaps script on step for more options), allow for using the optional rules for cover (2nd edition), and might actually allow us to show the outdoor river tiles that were not used in FRUA or available currently in DC

I believe this would have to be discussed in greater detail, though; to make agreement on a workable option

Another one, picked up from the "View Screen" thread: an option in the item database (or, alternatively, just in the items.txt file) to allow weapons to be readied only by certain races. This was implemented in Dragonlance goldbox games which allowed only Kender to ready hoopaks.

Some of these things can already be done - a few anyways - and I'll list what and how in my reply tomorrow. I'll put all of these down in my spreadsheet tonight.

Just one quick note - Steve, this last request is completely doable now. We use this "trick" with scrolls to allow only mages and thieves of 11th level and higher to ready them. Just aout anything you can think of as a criteria can be coded - race, gender, other items, etc.

14. SPELL MEMORISED EVENT TRIGGER14A. Ability to check whether the party has a particular spell memorised and to trigger any event based on the result. (This might already be possible via logic block but I would like "spell memorised" and "spell not memorised" as event triggers.)

We have a "Party has spell memorized" trigger in the event editor, but we don't have the "spell not memorised" version.

Quote from: steve_mcdee

14B. Ability to remove a memorised spell through an event

This is a biggie we don't have. We can have a character cast a spell via script, but we can't remove it from the inventory.

Quote from: steve_mcdee

15. SPELL ACTIVE EVENT TRIGGERAbility to check, as an event trigger, if "Party is effected by "X" spell - and chance to choose the relevant spell. Not 100% sure how this would be done. Similar to "detecting traps" trigger but flexible for application with other spells.

We can do this with event trigger scripts, and I can supply "paste-ins" where the designer would only need to change the spell name. A point and click version would be harder.

Quote from: steve_mcdee

21. NPC CONTROL OPTIONSIt would be nice to have an option, for each NPC, to decide whether they are (1) always Player controlled in combat; (2) never player controlled in combat; or (3) controlled according to whether the party satisfies the relevant conditions for Paladin control. There might possibly be other options.

This is another one that can be controlled with a "paste-in" script, but not with a check block. What I like about using a script is the ability to adjust the results using ASLs for Leadership, Karma, or whatever. It's more work for the designer, though.

Quote from: Dinonykos

27 (Related to Option to deactivate the "Drop Character" function in the camp menu. Alternatively, there could be check boxes for NPCs like "can be dropped"

Okay. As long as I can still kill 'em I'll drag NPC corpses around.

Quote from: SilentThief

Ability to add/subtract/get currency slot numbers via script I was playing around in .914 with idea of setting up a currency slot for "food" and then running regular checks to see if you have some or not. In .914, designer cannot subtract from currency slot totals nor check to see if you have nothing in slot. Going with the "food" in a currency slot example, then you can make use of create food or water spells and such. The ability to script currency would also work for an event where some NPC pickpockets some players character. I seem to remember something like that happened to me in a goldbox game.

I've been playing with this!

$COINCOUNT(coinOrdinal, CharacterOrdinal) in an event trigger script can be used to determine how much of what a character has, and trigger an appropriate Take Party Items event. It's not as good as being able to script it, but it works. It can be used to steal items as well as money, and the percentage chance of success or detection (AD&D rules) can be used. It also works for characters stealing from random townspeople. This one will definitely be in the script repository.

Using currency for food is problematic because in my attempts the program made change and loaded the party up with food. Items and special items seem to work fairly well for this.

* * * * * *

I'd like some means of returning the party's action in passing a locked door. (Whether BASH, PICK, or USE MAGIC was used.)

Uses:If a door is unlocked or opened by spell, it might be relocked. This could provide a relatively secure resting place.

I consider bashed doors broken, so they can't be closed and relocked. People who leave a trail of broken doors have flagged their presence, and are very easy to track. (And we can replace normal doors with broken doors now!)

It's a question, *not* a request. It probably is AD&D 2nd, but ... is there or will there be any way to allow two-weapon fighting? (Sorry, by the way, if someone asked this already. I didn't find it mentioned anywhere.) With reduced penalty for characters with high Dex and/or rangers, like I know it from games like EOB and, later, BGII? As I said, just a question.

The only real request I have is that someone, please, would tell me where to post general questions and ideas. I miss a "general" and/or "FAQ/questions" section for DC. At the moment, I am still busy getting used to DC and downloading/converting stuff, but somewhere in the (probably far) future I definitely will have tons of questions, ideas and general thoughts to share.

27 (Related to Option to deactivate the "Drop Character" function in the camp menu. Alternatively, there could be check boxes for NPCs like "can be dropped"

Okay. As long as I can still kill 'em I'll drag NPC corpses around.

Well, that's a point. But for designs which go more into the interactive-story direction, it would be very helpful to prevent the player from removing NPCs from the party.

One point I forgot: I remember we had a discussion about moving through a certain type of wall as event trigger. I don't remember, however, how the discussion ended... Thus, in case it is not yet possible:

31: Event trigger "pass through wall type" or something like that.

Logged

Find four contributions to the Pre-Generated Character Mini-Module Design Contest on my homepage.New: THE AMBASSADOR'S LETTER, my contribution to the 7-day-challenge.DINONYKOS DUNGEON CRAFT DESIGN HOMEPAGE

The way I have done it is to set up the config.txt so that the bigpic is displayed from 0,0 (the line in config.txt is BIGPICSIZE). Then you can choose, as a bigpic image, an image that is 640x480 (or whatever screen size you are using). The only catch is that, for ordinary bigpics, you will need to include (at least) the top and left borders as part of the image, since they will be displayed from 0,0.

Here is a screenshot showing a "full screen" bigpic in game, and another showing an example of what can be done with a smaller image, by selecting "sprite picture".

I had the same idea with the 0,0 coordinate, but had already done so much art with the standard formats that I decided not to change everything... (Theoretically, you could use this approach for all graphic types and e.g. make a bigger 3D window, as Manikus has succesfully accomplished for several resolutions).

A good compromise is to use big pics with 608x390428 px in the standard resolution - you can almost get the same effect and still keep the 608x288 px big pics for other events. I use that approach for the intro comics in Cold Trail and Helmetlands: Praeludium.

« Last Edit: June 19, 2012, 01:07:19 PM by Dinonykos »

Logged

Find four contributions to the Pre-Generated Character Mini-Module Design Contest on my homepage.New: THE AMBASSADOR'S LETTER, my contribution to the 7-day-challenge.DINONYKOS DUNGEON CRAFT DESIGN HOMEPAGE

27 (Related to Option to deactivate the "Drop Character" function in the camp menu. Alternatively, there could be check boxes for NPCs like "can be dropped"

Okay. As long as I can still kill 'em I'll drag NPC corpses around.

Well, that's a point. But for designs which go more into the interactive-story direction, it would be very helpful to prevent the player from removing NPCs from the party.

True. One option is to use 'ghost' NPCs who don't show up in the party roster. Set a variable when they join the party, and use it to trigger text or other events. I like this method because the ghost NPC can't be looted or dropped, and can even show up in combats by adding it as a 'friendly' monster.

It's a question, *not* a request. It probably is AD&D 2nd, but ... is there or will there be any way to allow two-weapon fighting? (Sorry, by the way, if someone asked this already. I didn't find it mentioned anywhere.) With reduced penalty for characters with high Dex and/or rangers, like I know it from games like EOB and, later, BGII? As I said, just a question.

I think we *maybe* could do this with scripting, but I think it would require some special items - off-hand versions of existing items - to make this work.

The only real request I have is that someone, please, would tell me where to post general questions and ideas. I miss a "general" and/or "FAQ/questions" section for DC. At the moment, I am still busy getting used to DC and downloading/converting stuff, but somewhere in the (probably far) future I definitely will have tons of questions, ideas and general thoughts to share.

In the design forum would fine. If it's an art question, maybe the art forum. I look at every post in every DC forum, so I'll see wherever it gets said.